


No 27. OK, Who Had Natural Disasters On Their 2020 Bingo Card?

by Smiley5494



Series: Whumptober 2020 [26]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 4+1, Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Extreme Weather, Gen, I'm Sorry, Lance still dies, Whumptober 2020, and freedom, but then he dies and everything gets so much worse, he deserves the world, no 27, to merlin lance is safety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27184505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smiley5494/pseuds/Smiley5494
Summary: Four times Lancelot noticed that Merlin's emotions affected the weather, and one time he didn't.
Relationships: Lancelot & Merlin (Merlin)
Series: Whumptober 2020 [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965595
Comments: 20
Kudos: 86





	No 27. OK, Who Had Natural Disasters On Their 2020 Bingo Card?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Angry Merlin Headcannons](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/704983) by caffeinatedflumadiddle. 



> prompt:
> 
> No 27. OK, WHO HAD NATURAL DISASTERS ON THEIR 2020 BINGO CARD?   
> Earthquake | **Extreme Weather** | Power Outage

Lancelot had noticed that whenever Merlin felt a particularly strong emotion, the weather joined in. When Merlin was angry, lightning struck. When Merlin was sad, it rained. Lancelot had noticed, had connected the dots, and he couldn’t help but fear for his friend.

If anyone else connected the strange weather with Merlin’s moods, it would mean Merlin’s death.

Lancelot made it his duty to calm Merlin, to keep him from destroying something in his anger.

* * *

The first time Lancelot noticed was when he left.

The Griffin was dead, and Lancelot had decided it wouldn’t be right for him to stay. Merlin tried his best, he argued and he pleaded but Lancelot would be persuaded. He spent one more night and Merlin told him all he knew about magic and druids and destiny, but the next day he left.

It rained, thunder rumbled, but there was no lightning.

When Lancelot turned around to wave goodbye, Merlin was crying, and the sadness on his face matched the darkening sky. Something clicked, Lancelot looked between the rain and Merlin and realised that the change in the weather was due to Merlin.

He still left, but he was going to make a stop in Ealdor to ask Hunith a few questions, and he was going to have a chat with the druids.

* * *

It rained every year on the anniversaries of the deaths of Merlin's loved ones.

Lancelot spent those times with Merlin, barely budging from his side. Merlin acted normally, as he always did, and it broke Lancelot's heart. Especially when the knight could see Merlin's emotions in the rain.

Lancelot stopped Merlin from doing something he would regret, and stood by his side, a steady presence in Merlin's grief.

Lancelot was Merlin's rock, the one that Merlin could rely on to be there for him. Lancelot knew about the magic, he knew about the grief and the anger. Lancelot knew about Merlin's fears, and he could make Merlin calm and at peace just by being there for him.

"Don't leave me," Merlin begged one night on the anniversary of Freya's death.

"I won't," Lancelot responded, "I promise."

* * *

Lancelot tagged along with Merlin when they went for the cup of life. He fought with everything he had and still kept an eye out for Merlin.

Merlin fought with Morgause, his anger was nearly tangible. When Morgause taunted him, a crack split across the wall in front of Lancelot. The crack got worse—and the ground beneath him started to shift—the angrier Merlin got. When they spilt the cup, the blood running down the wall in a gruesome display, the world seemed to stand still. There was silence as they waited for the other shoe to drop.

The blood made Lancelot cringe. He wasn't usually a queasy person but this was just too much.

Then Morgana found them, and Lancelot learned that she too could affect their surroundings when her emotions got the best of her.

* * *

The next time Lancelot saw just how much the weather could be affected by Merlin's moods, was when the knights were on patrol.

Merlin came along because he always did, and no one could actually say no to him. Not even Arthur and Lancelot wouldn't even bother to try. They were chatting, the knights and Merlin, when an old woman surprised them. She didn't seem entirely there, looking through Lancelot when he asked what she was doing. She stared right through them and outright confessed to being a sorceress. The entire group froze, and Lancelot watched Merlin for how he should react.

Arthur moved for his sword, but Merlin stopped him. Lancelot watched as the warlock calmly started talking to the woman, asking questions, gently probing for information. The woman spoke about her son, and Lancelot relaxed. When she told Merlin, proudly, that she had cursed the girl who killed her son, Merlin stopped.

Lancelot felt the world pause, it was as though something vital had just shifted, and his surroundings felt like they were _slightly_ to the left of where they had been only moments before.

Thunder rumbled, the sky opened and rain poured down, lightning struck a tree just off to the side of where the woman was.

Lancelot flinched, and he wasn't alone; Elyan took a nervous step away from the tree, Percival watched the darkening clouds with a frown. Merlin cast a dismissive glance towards the sky, his expression as thunderous as the weather.

Arthur's hand was on his sword and he looked worried as he watched Merlin. Lancelot was struck with the sudden fear that Arthur _knew_ , that Merlin would be killed and he would be able to do nothing about it. Lancelot could've sworn that the temperature dropped several degrees.

The woman edged away from Merlin and towards Arthur, and Lancelot watched, lost in thought, as she raised a knife.

Merlin reacted before anyone else could, and a bolt of lightning struck the woman before she could bring the knife back down. It struck her head on and she was dead before she hit the ground.

Lancelot couldn't help but feel afraid of his best friend, who had just directed lightning to kill a woman without blinking an eye.

* * *

Lancelot stepped into the veil.

It was going to be Merlin, and he couldn't accept that. He stepped into the veil—a willing sacrifice—looked back once, then let go.

Lancelot didn't see the way Merlin crumpled, he didn't see the way Merlin's devastation was painted across his face and the sky, he didn't hear the way the birds didn't sing. 

Lancelot didn't see the way it rained for the next few months in a near-constant downpour, only stopping or slowing occasionally. If he had, he would have read the weather as Merlin's grief for him; Merlin's belief that everyone would leave him eventually.

Lancelot had made a promise to never leave. Lancelot had never intended to break it, but he did. As a willing sacrifice, Merlin wouldn't be able to do anything to get him back.

Lancelot would never see the way the weather mirrored Merlin again.


End file.
